Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Greater New Orleans

Change Region

comments

LSU wins without much drama, 5-1, over ULL to advance to the Super Regionals

LSU vs. UL NCAA Baseball

LSU senior Mason Katz gives high-5s to fans after the Tigers beat UL-Lafayette 5-1 at Alex Box Stadium on Sunday to sew up a regional championship.
(Photo by David Grunfeld, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

With
a third win in three days, LSU (55-9) advances to the Super Regional round for
the second year in a row. Oklahoma (43-19) heads to Baton Rouge later this week
after sweeping to three wins at the Blacksburg Regional as the No. 2 seed.

The
win Sunday was the Tigers' cleanest of the three, with very little drama after
two days of harrowing activity against Jackson State and Sam Houston State.

Brent BonvillainLSUSports.net

To
set up the showdown with the Sooners, the Tigers had to pin their hopes on
Bonvillain because of a pitching staff stretched thin, and he delivered a
clutch performance.

For
the second week in a row, the Houma native was center stage as LSU played for a
championship. He came up big again, logging 5 shutout innings with only two
hits allowed as the Tigers' hitters tried to find their groove.

The
only run the Cajuns (43-20) got off Bonvillain was unearned. Dex Kjerstad
started the 6th inning by reaching on Alex Bregman's error and Jace
Conrad hammered the next pitch into left-center field for an RBI double, one of
ULL's season-low 3 hits and the only one for extra bases.

"I'm
not sure where that came from," the soft-spoken Bonvillain said. "My curveball
was working pretty good, and I was just trying to pump strikes."

Bonvillain
(3-0) got Blake Trahan on a fly ball to center field for the first out and then
gave way to Nick Rumbelow, who was equally as dominant. The junior righty faced
eight batters, retired them all, and struck out four to give LSU a bridge to the
9th inning when Chris Cotton sprinted in to get the final three
outs.

"He
was just phenomenal (Sunday)," LSU Coach Paul Mainieri said. "He was like a man
possessed. Honestly I didn't want to take the ball away from him."

On
the heels of a rocky first-game performance when Jackson State hung up 7 runs,
the Tigers' pitching staff didn't allow an earned run in the final 18 innings of the
regional.

That
was a key Sunday because the LSU offense whiffed on several chances to break
the game open and left a window of opportunity wide-open for the Cajuns, who
entered the NCAA Tournament with one of the best offenses in the country.

LSU
stranded 10 runners in the first 5 innings, six in scoring position. The only
run that came home was on a bases-loaded walk to Ty Ross.

"This
still wasn't our game that we've played most of the season," senior Mason Katz
said. "We missed some clutch at-bats, but our pitching did what it's done all
year. Bonvillain came up huge, Rumbelow pitched like a big leaguer. Anybody that
came up to hit against him was at a disadvantage. And Cotton was Cotton.

"This
was a game where our pitching did a lot of the work for us."

Not
all of it, though.

LSU's Alex Bregman (left) celebrates with teammate Raph Rhymes after hitting a solo home run in the 8th inning against UL-Lafayette on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium.
(Photo by David Grunfeld, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

Alex
Bregman turned in his second 3-hit game in a row and salted the win away with a
no-doubt solo home run in the 8th inning after just missing one a
few at-bats before.

The
biggest hit of the night came from senior Raph Rhymes to finally create some
breathing room.

Holding
a 1-0 lead, LSU came to the plate in the 5th inning to face reliever
Cord Cockrell, who had ended the 4th without any more damage by
getting Alex Edward to roll out to shortstop.

Cockrell
also got the first out of the 5th inning, but Mark Laird - playing for
the first time in five games after he sprained an ankle at the SEC Tournament -
dumped an opposite-field single to left field. JaCoby Jones yanked an 0-and-1
pitch through the left side, and Bregman took one pitch and then punched a
sizzling ground ball through the middle for an RBI single.

"I
think we used the whole field that inning," Bregman said.

ULL
coach Tony Robichaux made another move, bringing in Kendall Mayer, and he won a
huge battle by striking out Katz for the second out.

He
didn't win the same showdown with Rhymes, though, as the Tigers' left field
rifled a ball to the right side just out of the reach of second baseman Jace
Conrad to plate two runs and give LSU a 4-0 cushion.

"That
was a time of the game where I needed to step up," said Rhymes, who was
3-for-5. "We had some guys on, and I was trying to make something happen. I was
looking for a good pitch to hit and got a curve ball and went the other way
with it."

The
fourth hit of the inning was much like the other three, and in fact, a
microcosm of the game for LSU. Nothing scorched, nothing dramatic, but
efficient.

"We
didn't play our best, but we got the job done," Rhymes said. "Our goal was to
win the regional, and that's what we did."

And
the Tigers did so following a script on Sunday that wasn't exactly normal. But
then neither was most of the weekend.

LSU closer Chris Cotton is congratulated by catcher Ty Ross after the Tigers beat UL-Lafayette 5-1 at Alex Box Stadium on Sunday.
(Photo by David Grunfeld, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

Whether
it was little-used Kurt McCune coming out of the bullpen for 4.2 innings of the
best baseball he has ever pitched in the regional opener, superstar Aaron Nola
weathering an awful 1st-inning storm for his 11th win or
the LSU offense scratching and clawing for an 8th-inning rally,
there were a lot of different elements to a successful but sometimes disjointed
weekend.

That
might have explained why the celebration afterward was festive, but subdued.

"We
all know that this is just 3/5 of the job that needs to be done to get to
Omaha," Mainieri said. "We know what the goal is. We know what's waiting at the
end of the weekend next weekend if we come out and play well."

The
schedule for the Super Regional will be unveiled either Monday or Tuesday after the entire 16-team field is set. The series will start either Friday or Saturday.

LSU
released information on tickets late Sunday. Tickets
will remain on sale to season-ticket holders until 5 p.m. on Tuesday either
online (www.lsutix.net) or they can be ordered
by phone at ( 225) 578.2184, or in person at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office on
the first floor of the Athletic Administration Building.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public only if tickets are
available following season-ticket renewals.